Thoughts from Dr. Jerry Kieschnick on Life in Christ

Menu

Tag Archives: Internet

For years I’ve marveled at the stunning salaries of some professional athletes. A Google search produced a list (https://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/#tab:overall) of the ten highest paid. From bottom to top, their annual salary and endorsement income range from a paltry $46 million for an English auto racer to a much more respectable $93 million for a Portuguese soccer player.

To say the least, those numbers are far from salaries of professional church workers, both preachers and teachers. In a former life of oversight of congregations in Texas, I always encouraged church leaders to be generous in the area of compensation, particularly when calling a new pastor and reviewing their current pastor. A laborer is worthy of his hire.

In that regard it’s an understatement to say the preaching profession is not known for commanding outlandish salaries. I’m happy to say that has improved somewhat in recent years. By the way, the only overpaid pastors I ever knew were those simply not doing their job!

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I stumbled upon an internet announcement last week that a North Carolina pastor had signed a contract to become one of the pastors of a well-known church in Houston. The contract was reportedly $110 million over six years.

According to my math, that would be approximately $18.3 million per year or about $1.5 million per month. My dear Terry’s comment is that that pastor’s wife would most likely not have to worry any more about clipping coupons!

Upon further investigation I found a video from the pastor himself, declaring the announcement untrue, bogus, a falsehood. He says he’ll be remaining at his church in North Carolina and not moving to the church in Houston. Don’t you wonder who started that rumor? I surely do!

Here are my four perspectives on this topic:

Don’t always believe everything you read on the internet, even if it looks legitimate.

There is a point at which compensation becomes way out of proportion to a person’s intrinsic value. That truism is not restricted to professional athletics.

Everyone who follows his or her vocational calling is worthy of reasonable, fair, even generous compensation, in proportion to his or her value to his or her employer.